Ip Man 4: The Finale

"Strangers in a strange land."

Ip Man 4: The Finale is a 2019 Hong Kong biographical martial arts film and is the fourth and final film installment of the Ip Man series.

Summary
Ip Man has to travel to San Francisco to find a new school for his son who just gets expelled. When he attempts to get a recommendation letter from the Chinese Benevolent Association, he finds that the martial arts masters are furious with one of Ip Man's students who teaches Kung Fu to Americans. Meanwhile, discrimination against Chinese is making things even more tense as Ip Man has to stand up for his fellow countrymen as well.

Extended Plot
In 1964, following the death of his wife, Ip Man discovers he has throat cancer due to chronic smoking. After his rebellious son Ip Ching fights back against a school bully and is subsequently expelled, Ip Man decides to travel to San Francisco in order to look for study opportunities. He entrusts Ching to his friend, Fat Bo, and promises to call Ching every night.

Ip's student, Bruce Lee, has upset the local martial arts community in San Francisco by opening a Wing Chun school, teaching non-Chinese people martial arts, and writing an English-language book on martial arts. He discovers from his friend Liang Gen that because Ip is a foreigner, a referral letter from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association is needed to enroll Ching into an American school. Grandmaster Wan Zhong-hua, the Association's president, refuses to write the letter as Ip is unbothered by Lee's actions, whereas the other grandmasters display open contempt. After a brief confrontation with Wan, resulting in a broken tabletop, Ip leaves.

While leaving the school after a meeting with the principal, Ip chances upon Wan's teenage daughter, Yonah, undergoing a racist attack from a rival cheerleader, Becky, and her male friends. Yonah fights back which results in Becky accidentally cutting herself on a pair of scissors. She is ultimately outnumbered, and Ip steps in to rescue her. He escorts Yonah home, where Wan accuses Ip of using his daughter merely to get the letter and challenges him to a fight for it. The duel is interrupted by an earthquake, and Wan tells Ip they will finish their fight at the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. Ip refuses, explaining that he merely accompanied Yonah home for her own safety, and leaves.

Becky lies to her parents, claiming that she had been attacked by Yonah. Her father, Andrew Walters, is an officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and is pressured by his wife into holding the Association responsible and deporting all illegal immigrants associated with them. Meanwhile, Hartman, a Staff Sergeant in the United States Marines and student of Lee, attempts to convince Barton Geddes, the Gunnery Sergeant on his base, to incorporate Chinese martial arts into their hand-to-hand combat training. Geddes, an openly racist man, proves the Marines' current Karate program superior by having Hartman fight the Marines' Karate instructor, Colin Frater, who defeats him. Hartman later manages to convince the unit's commanding officer of kung fu's potential, and is instructed to film the Mid-Autumn Festival happening at Chinatown for research purposes, infuriating Geddes.

Geddes instructs Frater to challenge the grandmasters at the Festival. Frater proves his strength by defeating three grandmasters until Ip intervenes and beats him badly, hospitalizing him. Meanwhile, Wan, who was supposed to be present at the festival, is arrested by the INS. Upon seeing Frater in the hospital, Geddes barges into the Association to find out where Wan is. Revealing his own martial arts prowess, he brutally defeats all the grandmasters present. He then threatens Walters to release Wan into the Marines' custody before bringing Wan into the camp to fight him. Due to a tip-off by Billy, a subordinate of Walters and another student of Lee, Ip and Liang Gen help members of the Association evacuate by the time the INS conduct its raid. Lee provides refuge for the Association, earning their respect.

Wan and Geddes fight at the Marines' camp. At first, Wan is able to match Geddes' blows, but is eventually overwhelmed and seriously injured. An emotional Ip reveals to Bo that he has cancer, which finally compels Ip Ching to talk to his father over the phone, after many failed attempts done by Ip before. Ip is brought into the Marines' camp by Hartman, and ultimately defeats Geddes after a long and savage fight.

Wan prepares the referral letter for Ip, but the latter states that he does not need it anymore as he does not intend to move to San Francisco. Ip returns to Hong Kong and reconciles with his son. A weary but determined Ip instructs his son to film him as he demonstrates Wing Chun on a wooden dummy.

A closing onscreen text states that Ip succumbs to his cancer in 1972 at age 79. An epilogue shows Lee paying respect to Ip at his funeral as more text reveals that the Marines officially incorporated Chinese martial arts into their training in 2001.